


First Light

by binkabonkahankeydoo



Category: The Little Vampire, The Little Vampire 2017
Genre: 2017 animated film, Ficlet, M/M, One Shot, but mostly love, imagine the characters are a smidge older in this, maybe 17?, recollection of trauma, technology saves the day, vampire
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-14
Updated: 2018-11-14
Packaged: 2019-08-23 15:14:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,410
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16621406
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/binkabonkahankeydoo/pseuds/binkabonkahankeydoo
Summary: "I don't remember what the sun looks like," Rudolph says, his voice cracking a little. "And I can't even picture what a sunrise might be like anymore."





	First Light

Tony wakes to the sound of a soft sigh; an unusual sound in this house, filled with the undead.

He rolls over, hands searching, but the other side of the bed is empty, the covers pushed down.

"Rudolph?" he says quietly, propping himself up on his elbow and peering blearily around the darkened room.

The floorboards by the window creak and he can just make out a dark figure as it steps back from the curtains. "Here, Tony."

"Rudolph? Why are you-? It's daylight? The window-?" His words don't form quite right, his brain still half asleep. Rudolph seems to understand him though, and he steps further back from the window.

"It's okay, Tony, I was just-" he pauses, "I just thought-" he sighs, head drooping a little, "I don't know."

That kicks his brain into gear, and he sits up. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I just-" He leaves the sentence hanging, eyes trained to the floor.

"Hey," Tony says, scooting across to the edge of the bed. "It's okay."

Rudolph looks up at him as he reaches out a hand.

"Baby, come here."

For a moment, Tony doesn't think he'll move. Thinks he might even turn and leave the room. But then he takes a step forward. And another.

His skin is like ice, but he takes his hand and weaves their fingers together. Rudolph sits down beside him without saying a word.

"Baby?" He leaves the question hanging, open-ended and unspecific. He traces circles into Rudolph's palm, finger slowly looping, again and again.

They sit in silence for a long time.

Tony thinks of long sleepless days and tense nights, the weight of three hundred years not resting easy on the shoulders of the weary.

Eventually, Rudolph releases a sigh; a big feat for someone who doesn't breathe.

"I don't remember what the sun looks like," Rudolph says, his voice cracking a little. "And I can't even picture what a sunrise might be like anymore."

Tony squeezes Rudolph's hand, pressing a kiss into it.

It all seems to spill out of him, then.

"I never wanted to be like this," he starts, holding onto Tony's hand tighter as his fingers start to tremble.

Rudolph tells him of the before times, when his family had been young and mortal. He'd loved to play in the lush green gardens of their family estate, grass soft under his bare feet and the sun warm in his short hair. His sister would run with him, just barely fast enough to snag at his coattails as they raced across the lawns.

Rudolph tells him of days spent in the sun, of picnics and friends, holidays and laughter. Of all the things he'd wanted to do, and all the things he'd wanted to become in his life.

But three hundred years of confinement to the dark depths of the earth tampers with such memories.

Tears are streaming down his face; dark red stains streaked across his pale cheeks.

He tells Tony of his days in the ground, trapped by necessity, and his nights on the run, hunted by hatred, and trapped by fear. How everything that he had been before had faded into the shadows of the seemingly endless night that had become both his life and his cage.

How he missed the small things, the things that he could only barely remember through the foggy lenses of the distant past.

"-and I just want to see a fucking sunrise," he sobs, fingernails digging roughly into Tony's palm. "Is that too much to ask?"

"Of course it's not," Tony says, wiping a stray tear from Rudolph's chin before it drips to the floor.

"Then why can't I just-" his voice breaks again, and he doesn't continue. He's said all he can say.

Tony smooths his thumb across Rudolph's cheek, and then his brow. He places a kiss on his forehead. Then on each cheek. And finally on his nose.

"I'm so sorry, baby, I'm so sorry you've had to go through so much." Tony lets their foreheads come together, and closes his eyes against the sting of his own tears. "If I could take it all away, if I could make it better, I would."

"I know." Rudolph gives a small nod of his head, brushing their noses together ever so slightly. "And I love you for it."

Tony shivers at those words, and Rudolph runs his hands up and down the length of his arms. "You've done so much for me, Tony."

"You deserve to be loved."

"So do you."

Rudolph is holding his face then, cupping his jaw in his palms, looking him right in the eyes. "You are the only reason I don't completely despise what I've become." He pauses, thumbs tracing brief circles on his skin. "For if I wasn't a vampire, I wouldn't have met you."

Tony doesn't know what to say.

Not a single cohesive thing comes to his mind.

There is only the softness of Rudolph's touch, the closeness of his face, and the completely unbridled love brimming within him.

Tony closes the distance between them, pressing his lips desperately to Rudolph's, pouring every thought, every feeling of love into this one kiss.

It's wordless, but he knows Rudolph understands.

When they pull apart, Rudolph rests their heads together and just smiles. It's a barely-there smile, but it's real.

"I-" the word catches in his throat; the constriction of heavy emotion. Tony tries again. "I think I have something that might help."

Rudolph's eyes flick up to him. "Yeah?"

"Wait here."

Rudolph nods, and Tony extracts himself from the embrace. He makes his way across the room; only three floorboards creak. In the second drawer from the top of the desk, he pulls out a laptop.

Rudolph watches him with keen eyes from across the room as he returns to the bed and tucks his feet up underneath himself.

"What are you-?"

"Just wait."

The screen takes a few moments to turn on once he flips the lid, and he taps in his password with ease. He feels Rudolph shuffle closer to him as he clicks open the internet browser.

Rudolph watches the screen intently, and Tony watches his face as he clicks on a video link.

At first, it's dark. Just trees and shadowy shapes in the night.

And then there's light; a bright and golden orb just barely on the horizon, washing the landscape with glowing yellows and oranges.

Rudolph startles, his body tensing and his eyes going wide.

"It's okay, it's a recording. A video." Tony reaches over and strokes his arm. "It can't hurt you."

Rudolph looks between him and the rising sun on the screen unblinkingly, looking for all the world like a lost child.

"Is-" he swallows. "Is that the sun?"

"Yeah." Tony smiles, "Yeah, it is."

Rudolph stares at the screen, completely enraptured by the sun as it climbs higher into the sky, pink hues and golden glimmers coming into existence on the morning palette as it rises.

Tony thinks he's beautiful, lips parted, hair a dark mess, eyes wide and fixated on a three-hundred-year-old dream.

The sun reaches its peak, glittering for a second more before the video ends, but Rudolph doesn't stop staring at the final image on the screen.

"I know it wasn't real," Tony begins, "but I hope you liked your first sunrise."

Rudolph barely nods.

"There's plenty more videos of sunrises, and sunsets, and eclipses. Anything you want to watch - it's out there."

Rudolph's nod is a little stronger this time, and he licks his lips, tearing his eyes away from the screen. Tony feels frozen in his gaze; so open, so vulnerable.

"Thank you," he finally says.

Tony smiles.

And then he's crying again, harder than before, and the laptop lays forgotten on the bed as Tony wraps him up in his arms, stroking his hair and kissing his head.

"I love you," he manages to choke out between sobs, and Tony just holds him tighter. "It was all darkness before I met you. And then you came into my life, bringing the light with you."

Rudolph sniffles, and then pulls back just enough to look into his eyes. " _You_ were my first sunrise, Tony. The first light in my life in a long time. I want you to know that."

Words fail him again; only honest and raw emotions remaining.

And when Tony presses a kiss into him - this time they don't stop.


End file.
